All's Fair in Love and War
by kaleidoscopeflowers
Summary: Noelle Redmond is your typical daughter of Ares. Her first summer at Camp Half-Blood, though, goes horribly awry when a fight leads to the death of her mother, and Noelle turns against the gods and seeks refuge at the Titan camp. Set during TLO.
1. Unpleasant Mornings and Archery Attempts

_**All's Fair in Love and War**_

_written by Kaleidoscope Flowers_

**Prologue: Of Unpleasant Mornings and Archery Attempts**

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_**Noelle Redmond is your typical daughter of Ares. Her first summer at Camp Half-Blood, though, goes horribly awry when a fight leads to the death of her mother, and Noelle turns against the Olympians. Complications arise when she befriends more half-bloods along the way as she tries to evade spiteful gods while seeking refuge at the Titan camp. But the demigods she befriends seem to be far from normal themselves, and they end up thrusting Noelle into several complex situations that are far from what she originally imagined. Set during TLO. Rated T for profuse swearing.  
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**This idea was hanging around in my head for days before I decided to write it down, and I scrapped several attempts for a first chapter before finally getting to this point. Keep in mind that this is a prologue, so future chapters will be longer. Also, thanks to the awesome **Theia 47** for being my beta reader and being a helpful editor 8)**

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"Uuuuuuuhhhhh . . ."

A yawn escaped from my lips, and my eyelids fluttered, refusing to stay completely open.

I sat up in my bunk, then was unpleasantly jolted wide awake by my head hitting the ceiling. I had forgotten that I was in the top bunk and that I had already gone through my growth spurt, making me at least a few inches taller than most fifteen-year-old girls.

I rubbed my temples, slightly disoriented. You would think that bumping your head shouldn't feel like anything for a child of Ares, but when you've just woken up and you're still sleepy, it hurts like hell. It's also not the best way to start off your day.

Rays of sunlight streamed through the smudged glass windows of the cabin. Even though the panes were dirty, the light that got through was almost blindingly bright, warning me that it was late morning. I remembered that breakfast ended and activities started at nine o'clock, and I guessed it was now around eight-thirty or eight-forty-five.

"Oh, gods . . ." I mumbled. I was already late for breakfast, and I'd have to rush if I wanted to get to my first activity on time. I climbed out of bed, still rubbing the back of my head, and looked at myself in the mirror.

I groaned. My hair was knotted and snarled in such a way that it made me look like a pale, freckled**,** blonde Medusa. I rummaged through my drawer to try and find something to make myself look a little more human. This was one of the rare times where I wished I was an Aphrodite girl. _They_ probably at least had sufficient hygienic supplies in their cabin.

"Hey, Redmond! REDMOND!"

A rough, low voice cut through my thoughts. I recognized it as Sherman's, a big, bulky guy who enjoyed wielding a longsword with a carelessness that I considered rather dangerous. I preferred not talking to him unless it was absolutely necessary.

"Yeah? And, goddammit, Sherman, could you at least make an effort to organize your clothes instead of leaving them in various places around the cabin? _Especially _on my favorite sword?" I shot back a reply. I was already grumpy from being woken up in an unpleasant way, and I was far from patient right now.

I was one of the four girls in the entire Ares cabin, who were Clarisse La Rue, our counselor; and a pair of twins named Alice and Reagan. Both were rather vicious, even for Ares girls, and they were either following Clarisse around or keeping to themselves. Clarisse was a bit nicer**.** I rarely talked to her, though.

I heard a vague grunt in response from Sherman and took that as an adequate apology; apparently he didn't have anything to say to me anymore. I pulled on a sweatshirt and ran a wet hairbrush through my tangled, dishwater-blonde hair so I looked acceptable for breakfast.

"Hey, Noelle, you ready for Capture the Flag?"

It was Clarisse's voice, a voice I recognized, but barely heard being directed solely toward myself. The fact that she had used my first name instead of my last was also odd, but maybe she just felt compelled to address me politely, since we weren't that close.

I took my celestial bronze sword out of the weapons cabinet. I glanced at the blade, making sure it was gleaming and polished**.** "Ready as I'll ever be, Clarisse. You?" I gave her a slight smile.

"Pssshh, yeah. I can't wait to kick some Aphrodite, Apollo, and Hermes ass." Clarisse laughed, and the sound was reminiscent of a hyena.

"I thought Silena Whatsherface from the Aphrodite cabin was one of your friends, though." I set down my weapon and put up my hair in a ponytail. I winced as I found a knot in my hair that I seemed to have missed before.

"Oh yeah, she's all right. Freaks happen, I guess. But those other giggly, self-absorbed bitches will definitely be fun to see tasting blood." Clarisse started toward the door. "Hey, you ready for breakfast yet?"

I slipped into a pair of sneakers and followed her. "Yeah, coming."

The mess hall was somewhat less noisy than usual, as Clarisse and I were a little late for breakfast. There were still a quite a few half-bloods hanging around the pavilion, though. I grabbed some eggs, bacon, and orange juice and muttered a prayer to my father as I scraped a bit of my eggs into the fire. A sharp, metallic scent arose from the burning food.

Clarisse and I were the only kids sitting at the Ares table, since everyone else had woken up before us and eaten earlier. We had never talked to each other much, but we made small talk about Capture the Flag and weaponry in order to avoid silence. We split paths after breakfast when I headed off to archery and she to sword fighting.

Archery had never been my forte. I preferred a balanced sword to a bow, to be honest, and judging a distance and aiming from afar was never my strong point. I was mediocre at it, you might say, not horrible; but far from gifted. There were people who were much worse than me, and at least I was a lot better at swordfighting, so I supposed I couldn't complain.

A girl with flaxen blonde hair and tanned skin was standing next to me. I could tell she was an Apollo girl. Her arrows landed much closer to the center of the target, compared to me and most of the other kids around us, even though she seemed to be concentrating on her aim just as much as I was.

She turned to look at me. The girl glanced at my far-from-perfect target after she noticed me staring. "Hey, don't worry. You're an Ares kid, aren't you? Noelle Redmond, am I right? We Apollo guys can only do archery. You guys are best with all the other weapons." She notched another arrow as her last one landed millimeters from the center of the target.

I put down my bow, knowing that if I tried to aim an arrow without looking that I would probably kill someone. "Well, not with archery, apparently. I'm a sword girl, myself."

"Ah. I've never liked swords. They all seemed too heavy and hard to control for me. But I suppose I would naturally have a preference for bows and arrows, being an Apollo child. I'm Taryn, by the way." She examined a different kind of arrow, weighing it in her hands before deciding to notch it.

"Taryn, you and your siblings have _such _an unfair advantage," I complained, then quickly took up the bow again to avoid a reprimand from Chiron, who was going around and correcting various campers' aims. I mumbled a curse under my breath as I fumbled with the bowstring, which had somehow gotten tangled.

"What, and you don't have an unfair advantage in any fighting or weaponry-related activities?"

"Oh, touché," I furrowed my brow as I tried to decide if I should adjust my aim slightly to the left. I stepped a little to the right in order to avoid the rays of sunlight obscuring my vision.

Taryn chortled and then pointed something out. "Hey, we need to go, don't we?" She gestured toward the mass of campers getting up and starting to move.

"_Oh," _I exclaimed with realization, hastily putting away the bow and arrows. "Oh, crap, we _do_ have to go, don't we? I have pegasi riding next, what about you?"

She grinned. "Sorry. I have sword practice next. Gotta be prepared for whipping your butts tonight in Capture the Flag, you know." And with that, she walked away.

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**Reviews and criticism are much appreciated. Thanks for reading!  
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	2. Capture the Flag Goes Wrong

_**All's Fair in Love and War**_

**Chapter One: Capture the Flag Goes Wrong  
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**Hi again. A few notes for this chapter: This chapter is mostly setting up the main storyline, but that really doesn't come until the end. The rated-T-for-swears thing kind of takes effect here, especially near the end as well. Also, thanks as always to my wonderful and patient beta, **Theia 47.

**Anyway, hope you enjoy.**

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By nightfall, the entire Ares cabin was ready for Capture the Flag.

Clarisse had gone to lengths to make sure we were all ready, including yelling so many curses at our siblings that I was surprised no one retaliated, and obsessively cleaning our weapons and armor for every single dust speck. It was an overzealous behavior that one of my siblings had told me happened every time when we had Capture the Flag. Of course, they never _told _Clarisse that. But even this couldn't dampen my spirits as we approached my second ever Capture the Flag, and the first ever where I probably wouldn't be stuck on border patrol.

Not to say I wasn't anxious, though. We were only doing some last-minute preparation before dinner, but my heart was already beating wildly with nervous anticipation of what was to come.

"Cabin Five, outside!" Clarisse barked. It was almost time for dinner, and I had the feeling she was going to give us one last talk before we got to eat. I nearly cut myself on the sword I had been so carefully examining for flaws in surprise. I quickly regained balance, though, and I got myself in order and scrambled outside.

It was a pleasantly cool summer evening. We arranged ourselves in a clump outside the cabin. Clarisse stood in front of us.

"Okay, here's our plan," Clarisse said. "You guys split into four bands of three each, and I'll assign each of you a job. We have twelve Ares kids, right? Here, you guys are one group—" Clarisse roughly shoved a group of three kids to the side, and then continued talking. "I'll be with this group, and . . . hey, wait, Noelle's left."

I felt myself get hot with embarrassment as everyone stared at me.

"Okay. Change of plans. You guys—" She pointed to the group she was in, "**—**will be a team of only two. Noelle and I will get the flag. Is that okay with you?"

I nodded quickly. I wouldn't have dared to refuse**,** anyway.

"Great, then," Clarisse numbered each group off. "Okay, Team One will be border patrol." There was some grumbling from Team One. Clarisse looked at them, her eyes glinting. "You _are_ all right with that, right?" The grumbles quickly ceased.

"Anyway. Team Two, you get the northeastern part of the woods, up to Zephyros Creek. Team Three gets southeastern, up to the edge. Team Four, you two will guard our flag. The Athena and Hephaestus kids will cover the border up to enemy territory, and Demeter will be around the other borders. Me, Noelle, Chase, Gardner, and Pollux will get the flag. Got it?"

We all nodded in understanding. There was only one Dionysus kid at camp, Pollux. His twin brother, Castor, had died last summer before I had come here. Annabeth Chase and Katie Gardner were the Athena and Demeter counselors, respectively. This was one of the rare times when Athena and Ares weren't pitted against each other in Capture the Flag. Maybe it was because the cabins' numbers had diminished significantly over the last few years. The rise of Kronos was something no one enjoyed talking about, despite how the Titans grew stronger every day. We all knew the where the disappearing half-bloods had gone; either to Kronos or killed in a skirmish with his forces.

"Now, we're up against Hermes, Aphrodite, and Apollo," Clarisse continued. "Hermes has the advantage of numbers. Apollo is a pretty big cabin too, and they're good with archery. Aphrodite, well . . ." She paused, looking for something to say. "Well, I can't think of any of their particular advantages, but we can't count them out."

We nodded, but I knew what everyone else was thinking. Aphrodite kids didn't really do much. The other cabins would probably just station them at the borders and have them alert everyone else if they saw us coming.

"We have Hephaestus, Demeter, and Athena on our side, though," Clarisse said. "Athena kids are okay tacticians, I have to admit, and the Hephaestus cabin is pretty strong and hardy. Demeter kids don't have a lot of physical prowess, but they have plants on their side, which can be useful." We all knew of the dislike between Athena and Ares, but we tried not to acknowledge it now as they were now our allies, and even in the big picture we had to work together against Kronos.

"Okay then. If everyone understands, it's time for dinner, and then Capture the Flag," Clarisse said shortly and then nodded. The rest of the cabin quickly made a run for the mess hall.

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Finally, after dinner, it was time for Capture the Flag. We all knew what to do, and we acknowledged our allies with a curt nod as we took our helmets and weapons. I wore a red-plumed bronze helmet and a standard set of armor. I was tall and skinny, with a body that resembled a thirteen-year-old runner whose body had been stretched out in a rather unflattering way. So, unlike my cabin-mates, I wore a size seven set of armor that hung off parts of my body and clanged against itself as I walked.

Clarisse joined me. "Okay, here's the plan, Redmond. Enemy territory is the strip of beach by Zephyros Creek. We can't afford to split apart, or else we can all be easily taken out. We have guards posted around every edge of the forest, so our enemies will have hell to go through if they want our flag. Since they have a longer area, though, it'll be harder for them to cover it all. We just need to eliminate guards one by one and not try and take it on all at once, okay?"

I nodded. "Do we have any strategy for finding the flag?"

"Don't draw attention to yourself. Stealth and silence are key here. We can take out the guards one by one without everyone else noticing if we can pull that off, and then taking the flag will be a piece of cake."

"Got it. So, where are Annabeth, Katie, and Pollux?"

Clarisse pointed behind us. "Right there." Two girls and a boy in armor waved as they jogged up to us.

"Hey. Clarisse . . . Noelle," Annabeth said shortly. She obviously wasn't crazy about having us for allies, but I wasn't interested in showing open hostility. That would just be an inconvenience for our entire team.

Clarisse and I acknowledged the daughter of Athena with a short greeting. Katie and Pollux said hello in return, and Clarisse told them the plan. We all agreed.

As soon as we got into enemy territory, Clarisse put a finger to her lips. We heard the rustling of leaves from a bush and saw a flash of armor. Katie and I crept around the edge of the tree we were hiding in to get a better look. Soon we were on the exact opposite side of our opponent.

Katie peeked around the edge as soon as she heard the sound of more movement, hoping that his own action would distract him from noticing her.

It was a second too late. The boy was an Apollo child with blonde curls and blue eyes that widened in surprise. Before he got up and drew his weapon, however, Katie used the powers inherited from her mother Demeter on the surrounding plants, causing them to rise up and pin him to the forest floor so he couldn't move. "He's not in any danger, someone'll get him eventually," Katie assured. I honestly didn't really care for the guy, as long as he was out of our way.

We continued on in this way for a while until we reached the edge of the woods. I could hear the waves from the creek lapping softly onto the beach, and spotted at least five sentries from the opposing team standing along the coastline, some standing on rocks and surveying the area.

"There," Annabeth hissed quietly, nudging all of us. "The flag." She pointed to the left. A golden banner with a crown of laurels in the center was planted in a mound of sand. A Hermes kid I vaguely recognized was guarding it, along with . . . Taryn. Huh. I would try and avoid coming into physical contact with her as much as possible when we battled for the flag.

"Not so fast. What about them?" Pollux whispered. He gestured toward the guards on the beach. If we attacked one, all of them would jump on us.

We all shrugged. We had no idea how we would fight them all off and manage to get the flag.

"Wait," I tried to speak as quietly as possible. Everyone looked at me. "I think I might have an idea, but it will be risky, and I don't know if you'll like it, Clarisse."

"I don't care. Just tell us," Clarisse replied impatiently.

"Well, Annabeth and I could go around and surprise them from behind. While they were preoccupied fighting us, you could jump in from the opposite direction, trapping them, and we could concentrate them in one spot where we could take them out." I pointed toward the guards on the beach as I outlined my idea. There were at least six or seven along the whole creek, not counting the Hermes kid and Taryn, who were guarding the flag itself.

There were some uneasy looks at first, but Clarisse slowly nodded. "I can't think of anything else, and we have to act fast. Let's go with Noelle's plan."

Annabeth still looked a little wary, but everyone else seemed to be okay with it. "If it fails, at least we'll be taking some of them down with us," Pollux said, trying to convince her. "And we have allies in the forest right there. Surely they'll notice or hear us if we go down."

"Oh . . . well, all right then," Annabeth said. She looked frustrated that she couldn't come up with anything better (The phrase "Athena always has a plan" came to mind), but everyone else looked at her expectantly. **"**Oh . . ." She bit her lip in concentration. Finally she spoke. "All right, fine. Let's go, Noelle." She still looked upset.

We crept out of the forest and stepped into the light of the moon. We treaded lightly, and the soft sand absorbed the sound of our footsteps as soon as our feet sank into it.

We finally reached the opposite edge of the beach from where we had been with Pollux, Katie, and Clarisse a while ago. Our adversaries, seven armed teenagers, stood in the immediate vicinity, and Annabeth and I and had no idea how we were going to attack.

I knew Annabeth was trying to analyze the situation in front of us and figure something out. She seemed to be muttering to herself.

"So, what now? 'Athena always has a plan,' remember?" I prompted her after a few minutes. It took her a while to answer.

"Well . . ." she started slowly. "How about we just creep up on the one at the end?" she suggested. I understood her reasoning; we could easily surprise the last guard by sneaking up, but then it would be us against six teenagers. But I supposed if we factored in Katie, Pollux, and Clarisse we would be roughly even. But what about Taryn and the Hermes kid? What would they do?

But I couldn't think of anything better, so I agreed. "All right, Annabeth. Let's do this." She sprung from our hiding spot and drew a glinting celestial bronze knife. I drew my sword as well.

A tall boy who looked around sixteen was the last guard. I guessed he was from the Hermes cabin. He was awkwardly holding his sword point-down at his side. His neck was vulnerable and wouldn't make as much noise if I hit it. It would probably leave a good-sized bruise, but it wouldn't be anything serious, and we needed him out of the way.

I quickly rapped his neck with the broad part of my sword, and he fell face down in the sand. Not quietly enough, though. His body made a slight thump as it made contact with the ground, and it was enough to get the guard in front of him to turn around.

"Oh, crap," I muttered under my breath, holding my sword in the defensive position to protect myself.

The person who had noticed us was an Apollo girl who had the same blonde curls as the guy we had knocked out earlier, but she had brown eyes. She made a quick hand motion that I couldn't make out, and suddenly five more armor-clad kids burst from the bushes, not far from where me and Annabeth had hidden a minute before.

"Damn it, you're going to _kill us, _Noelle," Annabeth muttered angrily.

"Yeah, well, sorry about that, but there's nothing we can do now." I now noticed that most of the five campers who burst from the bushes were Aphrodite kids, and felt a slight spark of hope. "Annabeth. You handle the other kids; I can take care of this lot. They're mostly Aphrodites." The surprise attackers were getting close, and the girl who had noticed us was running toward Clarisse, Katie, and Pollux, who had chosen now to come out and attack.

Annabeth looked at me worriedly. "You sure?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Now GO!" She ran off, and I prepared to face off against five people. It was four girls and a guy, all from the Aphrodite cabin. They still looked perfect, no mud or dirt on their faces or anything. But they were armed, and I knew they weren't helpless.

"Well, well. Five against one, Noelle Redmond. This really isn't fair." A pretty girl who looked about seventeen walked up to me with a vicious smile.

"Oh yeah?" I spat. "Well, then, why don't you fight me one on one?"

They all laughed like I had made the hilarious joke ever. "Tempting as that might be, we're not taking our chances tonight." The girl deliberately took her time. She tucked her shining black hair to one side before drawing a polished sword.

I got closer to them. "Oh, well, then, if that's how you prefer it. I have no issue against fighting a bunch of cowardly _bitches."_ I pronounced the last word clearly and spat it in the pretty black-haired girl's face. She stepped back with a disbelieving expression on her face.

"Oh, so I'm a bitch now? Well, that's better than being a crude, animalistic Neanderthal." Her amber eyes were ice. "Remember, five against one, Noelle. How do you want to go? I swear on our mother Aphrodite that any of the ways won't be painless. At least not _now."_ She made a sudden move as if to stab me, but I sidestepped her easily.

"Like I'm scared of five dumb twits who can't even hold a sword right," I scoffed. Two others started toward me with weapons drawn, but I glared at them threateningly and pointed my own sword at their chests. They stumbled back, already looking frightened, and I smirked. Sometimes being a child of Ares had its advantages with Aphrodite kids; they were rather soft anyway, and despite all of their haughtiness, they were still scared of us.

I looked directly at the daughter of Aphrodite who had started talking to me in the first place. "Your mother will do nothing for you, by the way. I mean, what good can a stupid, whore bitch of an excuse for a goddess do for _you, _anyway?" I meant to say something that would just make the stupid Aphrodite kids shut up, but I immediately knew I had gone too far as soon as the words left my mouth.

As soon as I caught the looks on their faces, I did what only a coward would do. I ran, aware of five armed and furious teenagers chasing me.

This wasn't Capture the Flag anymore. I had ruined the fun competition of that. Now I had probably seriously offended Aphrodite and her children, and they weren't going to forget about that or wave it off easily.

Crap.

I ran toward friendly territory, now aware that I probably seemed like a despicable coward to my own team and our enemies.

My armor was still awkwardly clanging against itself as I ran; my sword was clutched at my side in my sweaty palm.

I only heard the faint, chortling laugh of an Aphrodite girl before I foolishly tripped on my own blade. My head hit something hard, and I blacked out.

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**Thanks for reading. Reviews are appreciated, and criticism is welcomed!**


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